


A Stitch in Time

by karrenia_rune



Category: Alice In Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
Genre: Community: 50scenes, Gen, POV Male Character, Promptfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-03
Updated: 2012-12-03
Packaged: 2017-11-20 03:59:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/581072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karrenia_rune/pseuds/karrenia_rune
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Mad Hatter and the bone of contention between himself and Father Time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Stitch in Time

Title: A Stitch in Time  
Fandom: Alice in Wonderland, general book series  
Author: karrenia  
Character: The Mad Hatter on Father Time and perpetual tea parties  
Words: 425  
Prompt: #40 writer's choice, Table 1  
Disclaimer: Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass books are the creations of  
Lewis Carroll. The characters and the world that they inhabit are not mine, and are only 'borrowed' for the purposes of the story.

 

"A Stitch in Time" by karrenia

 

He had once told the strange little duck that the reason for their perpetual tea-time was due to his running afoul of Father Time and the old tinkerer has taken his wrath out him in his own peculiar way. Even at this late remove, the Mad Hatter could not now recall what her response had been, but it did occur to him that the right of the queen and sundry royalty about holding several thoughts in their heads at any given moment really was quite unfair. 

He reached for his pocket watch, dangling from the belt at his waist coat and thumbed it open with one hand; the other was currently tracing the faded and obscured delicate tracery of gardenia flowers around the rim of his teacup. 

The Mad Hatter wondered if all of those old bromides about time were really true as they were meant to sound; such as a stitch in time saves nine? Or hurry up and wait, time is all we’ve got. On the flip side he also wondered if somewhere that old man was off somewhere making these up as he went.

His old comrade and fellow tea party participant seemed to be preoccupied with his own thoughts, or perhaps he was just musing over the quality of his buttered toast, or the consistency of the tapioca pudding. 

He really did love tea, and all the fixings, and took the ritual of preparing and enjoying it quite seriously, but somehow a perpetual state of tea time did wear on one after a while. He began to whimper, then the somehow quite without his being aware of it, the melancholy feeling had turned into anger. He grasped its edges in his grip and felt it break off at the handle. Feeling rather disgusted at the waste of a perfectly good if a bit dirty and dusty tea cup, he rocked back and forth in his chair for a spell, taking several deep breaths.

Then, quite without being aware that he did so, he took hold of the milk jug and throws it into in a random direction where it spun end over end until it at last fetched up into a clump of river reeds.

The Mad Hatter, by now had worked himself into quite froth, his lower lip quivering with suppressed anger at the joke that had been played on him by Father Time, “Take that, Father Time, old bean!” he cried, and then his anger and energy at last spent, laid his head on the table, closed his eyes and fell asleep.


End file.
